More about I7

Faster memory access
The reason for this platform shift has to do in part with a fundamental design change in Intel’s CPU architecture. As has long been rumoured, Intel has finally adopted an integrated memory controller into its Core i7 CPUs. What this means is that instead of the CPU communicating with a separate controller on the motherboard before it can talk to the system memory, Core i7 can save a step, and essentially receive data from the system RAM directly.

Intel’s new Extreme Motherboard DX58SO.

AMD adopted this integrated controller strategy in the early days of its Athlon dual-core processors, and it was one of the factors that led the company to dominate Intel’s competing Pentium D CPUs of that generation. Through superior design since then, Intel has regained its performance lead over AMD, and we suspect that by adding the on-chip memory controller to Core i7, Intel has only made it more difficult for AMD to find a design advantage moving forward.

A potential complication here is that the new memory controller has three channels to the RAM. That means that — unlike most desktop set-ups, which involve two or four memory sticks — Core i7 systems will want memory sticks in multiples of three. This is why Intel shipped our test system with only 3GB of RAM (we got creative with a 2×1GB, 1×2GB RAM configuration for 4GB total for testing), and why in high-end PCs that use the new X58 platform, 3GB, 6GB and 12GB configurations will be common. X58 will also only support DDR3 RAM, whose prices have thankfully come down over the past year.

Four cores, sometimes eight
If you’ve followed Intel’s chip designs over the years, the term ‘Hyperthreading’ shouldn’t be unfamiliar. This technology lets Intel simulate more processing threads on top of its old dual-core Pentium 4 chips. It abandoned that strategy with the Core 2 family, but Intel has resurrected it with Core i7, and it’s why you’ll see eight processing threads when you bring up Windows’ system performance screen. Few day-to-day programs will benefit from Hyperthreading, and it’s more of a situational benefit for processing reliability and the scant few applications that can actually support so many threads. Core i7 will eventually hit eight native cores on a single CPU, or 16 processing streams with Hyperthreading, but Intel has not made it clear when that will happen. It may be worth the wait if you know you’ll need that much parallelism, but few ordinary users will.

Multi-graphics agnostic
Another significant change with the Core i7/X58 landscape had to do with graphics cards. Intel’s Skulltrail platform of last year supported both standards as well, but the specialised CPUs that made the board worthwhile were prohibitively expensive. With the X58 chipset, yes, it comes on an expensive motherboard, but you can purchase a Core i7 chip to go with it for less than $300 (~£191). The Core 2 Extreme QX9775 Skulltrail CPU started at $1,500 (~£957). Gamers who stay current with graphics cards should be especially happy with this flexibility, as changing 3D card vendors will no longer require a wholesale system rebuild.

We tested both SLI and Crossfire set-ups on our Core i7 testbed and found both worked without trouble, requiring nothing more than installing the hardware and appropriate graphics driver software as you would normally. As for their performance, AMD has issued a series of so-called ‘hot-fix’ drivers to improve compatibility and frame rates of its cards with various PC games, which suggests that its software still needs to work out a few kinks on X58. Nvidia has not been shy to point out this fact (its beta drivers have worked fine).

A quicker path
Finally, the last major change with Core i7 is the introduction of what Intel is calling the QuickPath Interconnect (QPI). Essentially this is the Intel version of AMD’s HyperTransport interface between the CPU and the chipset. The major impact of the QPI for users is that Intel employs different QPI ratings to distinguish the Core i7-965 Extreme Edition from the non-Extreme Core i7 chips. Rated by Gigatransfers per second (Gigatransfers, or GT, refers to a million transfers of data), the Extreme Edition comes in at 6.4GT/sec, where the non-Extreme versions handle only 4.8GT/sec. In addition to that speed advantage, Intel also ships the Extreme version with an unlocked clock multiplier, which means it can be overclocked. The standard Core i7’s will have to remain at their shipping speeds.

To put the Core i7-965 Extreme Edition in perspective, we compared it with the year-old Core 2 Extreme QX9650. The Core i7 has a faster clock speed and an L3 cache shared by the four cores that’s four times larger than that of the older chip. With the integrated RAM controller on Core i7 replacing the need for a frontside bus, the platforms are quite different from each other, so the specs don’t tell the whole story. The performance results speak more clearly.

The Core i7 chip is faster than the QX9650 on every test, but we were most impressed by the Cinebench multicore test and the Far Cry 2 benchmark, where Intel’s new CPU established a sizable performance advantage. Gamers and digital media editors may have assumed that Core i7 is worth their attention: as we can see from our testing, any such assumption is clearly justified.

We expect the web will flood with reviews of the entire Core i7 family at the same time that this review launches. We encourage anyone considering a new CPU purchase to read as much coverage as possible to make the most informed buying decision. Any CPU with a $999 (~£637) price tag merits careful consideration.

Power consumption
You’ll note from our power consumption tests that the Core i7 and the QX9650 consume almost the exact same amount of energy both at idle and while under load. We didn’t expect major gains here, as both chips use the same 45nm process, run at a similar clock speeds and with similar numbers of transistors. Intel typically gains more power efficiency with chips introduced in a ‘tock’ year, which involves more efficient manufacturing of an existing architecture, than from a ‘tick’ year such as this. The Core i7-965 Extreme may have improved its relative power usage, in that it uses fewer transistors to do more work and at faster clock speeds than the older Core 2 Extreme chips. But anyone building a system with this new processor should expect to need an equivalently beefy power supply — especially if you intend to add multiple graphics cards and hard drives.

i7

In the last few months you may have seen previews and news stories regarding Intel’s new Core i7 desktop processor family, formerly known as Nehalem. Today, we’re able to publish our impressions of Intel’s new chip and ultimately its new platform. We’ve selected the flagship $999 (~£637) Core i7-965 Extreme Edition CPU to represent the Core i7 family, which at launch later this month will include three other processors, starting at $284 (~£181). These new chips all require a new chipset, which will only exist at first by way of a very expensive new motherboard. We don’t expect mainstream users to adopt Core i7 in any variation at first, at least until the motherboard prices come down. But well-heeled performance-seekers who do make the leap will enjoy the fastest CPUs on the market.

Core i7 has enough architecture changes to require a brand-new connection design between the chip and the motherboard. This is no small change, because Intel has stuck with the LGA775 chip socket since the days of Pentium 4. The new socket design, LGA1366, will not accept any older Intel CPUs, nor will Core i7 work on any older motherboards.

Unlike a new socket design, new chipsets aren’t uncommon with updated Intel CPUs. The last three Extreme Edition chips Intel has launched each required its own new motherboard circuitry, and Core i7 is no different. Intel’s new Core i7-supporting X58 chipset will only appear in very high-end boards. We conducted this review with the Intel Extreme Motherboard DX58SO board, and we’ve already reported on a new X58 board from ASUS. Expect Gigabyte, MSI and Intel’s other typical board partners to introduce their own new X58 boards, and we expect prices will stay at or around the $300 (~£191) mark. For this reason, Core i7 will remain an enthusiast CPU until Intel introduces a more moderate, mass consumption-friendly Core i7-compatible chipset.

ATI

Writing about the latest and greatest hardware is fun—I’m not going to lie. Getting hands-on with technology in the lab is practically a hobby, and I’m fairly confident that most enthusiasts would share that excitement surrounded by a lab full of tech.

But I’ll be the first to admit that $500 dual-GPU video cards and $1,000 Extreme Edition processors are Beluga caviar in a Big Mac world. There are some lucky gamers who really buy the pricey stuff. A majority, however, live vicariously through the reviews, and actually spends their money on components derived from high-end kit.

Fortunately, even the mid-range of the graphics market is full of excitement right now. Bargains pepper the $100-$200 range, from the Radeon HD 4830 to the Radeon HD 4850/GeForce GTS 250 and Radeon HD 4870/GeForce GTX 260.

The challenge faced by vendors like ATI and Nvidia, though, is that those inexpensive cards all center on the same GPUs—processors that actually begin life as potential top-shelf components powering boards like the GeForce GTX 285 and Radeon HD 4870. Dropping the engine from a $350 GTX 285 into a $180 GTX 260, for instance, has to be painful. Similarly, the slide from $180 Radeon HD 4870 to $130 Radeon HD 4830 isn’t exactly economical.

That’s why you see derivative mainstream GPUs. Think G94 to Nvidia’s G92 or RV620 to ATI’s RV670. They employ architectural elements from the full-strength GPU, but consume less die space. So long as ATI or Nvidia is able to sell enough of them to offset a separate chip design, they come out ahead.

A Mainstream Contender?

Enter ATI’s new Radeon HD 4770—the first GPU manufactured on a 40 nm process. As with the other models in the company’s HD 4000-series family, the HD 4770 is derived from the same popular RV770 design popularized by the Radeon HD 4870 and 4850 cards almost a year ago.

But this one sports a slightly different core arrangement. At the same time, it displaces ATI’s Radeon HD 4830, which centered on the same pricey RV770 GPU at 55 nm. Thus, we’ll be expecting at least comparable performance as we compare new to old.

If the Radeon HD 4770 is, in fact, able to stand up to the HD 4830, then the best news for value-oriented gamers will be this card’s price tag: $109. I don’t think I’ve ever used the word “impressive” in conjunction with something you’d normally find in the bargain bin. However, playable frame rates at 1920×1200 might just deserve such an adjective if this new mainstream board turns out to be a contender. It’d be a real coup for ATI too, given the massive market for $100 video cards, according to the same Mercury Research data we cited in the Radeon HD 4890 story.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the Radeon HD 4770’s innards for a glimpse at why this card has potential to be a winner.

Superficially, the Radeon HD 4770’s specs look fairly similar to ATI’s Radeon HD 4830. But they’re completely unique GPUs. For example, the 4830 centers on the familiar 956 million transistor RV770 with two of its 10 SIMD units disabled, yielding 640 total stream processors and the ability to filter 32 textured pixels per clock (down from 800 and 40, respectively).

ATI’s Radeon HD 4830 retained all four of the RV770’s render back-ends (each of which could process four pixels and 16 Z/stencil operations per clock—that’s why you see these cards spec’ed out with 16 ROPS). The memory controllers carried over as well, enabling the same 256-bit memory bus employed on Radeon HD 4850 and 4870 boards. The main difference, of course, was that the 4850 and 4830 were only armed with GDDR3, while the 4870 sported GDDR5.

In comparison, the Radeon HD 4770’s architecture employs an 826 million transistor GPU armed with the same number of SIMD units available (eight). It also boasts 640 stream processors (128×5) and 32 texture units. So, from a front-end view, RV740 looks a lot like the RV770 after it was chopped up to become Radeon HD 4830.

The full complement of ROPs carries over too, processing 16 pixels and 16 Z/stencil ops per clock. Where you’ll notice the most significant difference is the memory configuration—two of the four 64-bit controllers are cut, leaving a 128-bit pathway. Because those memory controllers are connected to the render back-ends via a hub, they don’t need to be mapped on a 1:1 basis.

Now, you’d assume the halved memory bus (down from 256-bits) would hammer performance. But ATI is outfitting the Radeon HD 4770 with 512 MB of GDDR5 memory, able to move twice as much data per clock versus GDDR3. So, the 4770’s throughput actually turns out to still be respectable for a mainstream part.

The shift to 40 nm has seemingly allowed ATI to push clocks on its Radeon HD 4770 significantly higher than what it was willing to offer on the 4830. Stock, the GPU runs at 750 MHz (versus the 4830’s 575 MHz).

Though the 800 MHz memory clock would appear slower than the 4830’s 900 MHz operating frequency, it’s important to remember that GDDR5 provides doubled I/O throughput. Of course, the card’s 128-bit counteracts those benefits. Whereas Radeon HD 4830 served up roughly 57.6 GB/s, the 4770 pushes 51.2 GB/s.

Another benefit of the 40 nm transition is reduced board power. ATI claims the 4770 is rated for a maximum 80W, putting it just over what a PCI Express slot is able to supply on its own. That’s well under the 110W cited for the Radeon HD 4850, though—a board that we’ll see is within the 4770’s performance crosshairs.

	Radeon HD 4850	Radeon HD 4830	Radeon HD 4770	Radeon HD 4670	GeForce GTS 250
Manufacturing Process	55 nm TSMC	55 nm TSMC	40 nm TSMC	55 nm TSMC	55 nm TSMC
SPs	800	640	640	320	128
Core Clock	625 MHz	575 MHz	750 MHz	750 MHz	738 MHz
Shader Clock	625 MHz	575 MHz	750 MHz	750 MHz	1,836 MHz
Memory Clock	1,000 MHz GDDR3	900 MHz GDDR3	800 MHz GDDR5	1,100 MHz GDDR4	1,100 MHz GDDR3
Frame Buffer	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	512 MB	1 GB
Memory Bus Width	256-bit	256-bit	128-bit	128-bit	256-bit
ROPs	16	16	16	8	16
Price	~$129	~$90	$109	$80	~$129

In our Radeon HD 4890 review, we abstained from publishing overclocking results to avoid mis-representing what a retail sample of the card could really do.

This time around, however, we were simply too curious about the 40 nm shift and what it could mean for enthusiasts who don’t mind cranking the knobs on their brand new graphics cards. Bear in mind that this is still an early sample of the HD 4770—your mileage may vary.

With stock clocks of 750/800 MHz as our reference point, we settled on a stable 830/850 MHz combination of frequencies in 3D mode, maxing out ATI’s Overdrive utility. And while the core automatically scales back to 250 MHz on the Windows desktop, memory maintains a constant 850 MHz when it’s overclocked.

Performance increases attributable to overclocking are minor, but certainly measurable. In Far Cry 2, the best returns fall just short of 10%.The same goes for Stalker, another one of the most GPU-limited tests in our suite.

Cooling

ATI readily admits that the Radeon HD 4770’s reference cooling solution was borrowed from its old 3800-series boards. Apparently, the less-aggressive dual-slot cooler enables cost savings versus single-slot solutions—but who’s to say? This thing still employs a large copper heatsink, heatpipes, and a covered shroud, so we’re honestly not sure where the supposed savings really comes from.

But by the time you’re ready to buy a new graphics card, you might not even need to worry about it. Wave one of Radeon HD 4770s will be the bog standard reference cards, as expected; dual-slot coolers, two dual-link DVI outputs, and so on. The wave after will be the ones tweaked by board partners (and will likely include models with single-slot coolers, juiced clocks, and special bundles).

Of course, that’s when you’ll need to keep an eye out for price. Spend too much trying to doll up something that was good enough in its stock form and you’ll find yourself priced right out of the product’s original value proposition. A Radeon HD 4770 priced at $109 is what we have on the bench today, so assume reference across the board in your own comparisons.

One thing we do need to mention: the first Radeon HD 4770 that arrived had an early BIOS with a slightly “off” cooling ramp. It’d heat up, spin to full duty cycle for two seconds, then drop back down to idle. This was fixed by a second card sent out by ATI, along with a note stating all of the boards appearing at retail starting April 28^th would include the fixed BIOS. We were also able to fix the issue by manually keying in the fan speed.

SOUND

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Inside your Computer??

Do you know what is inside your computer? Maybe you peeked when the service technician was installing something for you. When you first open up the CPU and look inside, a computer is a very threatening machine. But once you know about the different parts that make up a complete computer it gets a lot easier. Today’s computers consist of around eight main components; some of the advanced computers might have a few more components. What are these eight main components and what are they used for? We will start with beginner level details to get you started.

First is the Power Supply. The power supply is used to provide electricity to all of the components in your computer. It is usually a rectangular box and is usually positioned in one of the corners of the computer. To find it for sure, look to see where the power cable plugs into the back of the computer and you have found the power supply. Most power supplies today are calculated in wattage and come in 50 watt increments (500 watt, 550, 600, etc

Second is the Motherboard. All of the components are connected into the motherboard; it doesn’t mean that it is the brain of the computer. Yes it holds the brain and helps it act together with all the other components of the machine.

The third and a very important component of a computer is the CPU (Central Processing Unit), Known as the brain of the computer and nothing is going to happen without it. All major calculation performed by a computer are carried out inside its CPU. It is also responsible for activating and controlling the operations of other units of the system. The faster the CPU can do these calculations and give the correct answers, the faster the computer runs for the user. CPUs are now measured in gigahertz (Ghz) and they are at present up to our 3.8GHz or faster

A fourth component is the RAM (Random Access Memory). RAM is used as momentary working storage for the computer. We have different types of RAM memory with different speed, but it should match with your motherboard so that it can work properly. The more RAM you have in your computer, the better your computer will work.

The fifth component is the Hard drive. This is where you can store everything. Our material on the hard drive includes the operating system (Windows XP, etc), games, and different types of software, etc. over the year the capacity of the hard drive is continuously improving and in the interval of few years its capacity have gone from around 20MB to over 500GB and more. So you can store a lot more information on your computer such as games, pictures, videos, applications, and more.

Sixth component is Cooling fans. Often most computers come with one cooling fan or it might have several. Its help to cool down the heat generated by others components, Such as power supply, the CPU, and some high-end video cards. The work of all of your cooling fans is to get this heat out of the case so that nothing overheats and breaks. While most of the noise you hear coming from a computer can be credited to the cooling fans, remember to be tolerant. The cooling fan is your friend!

Our Seventh and final component is the mixture of several different devices. These are the Cd-rom, DVD drives, floppy Drive and Backup devices such as external hard drive.

Latest compute processor

Latest computer processor provides high speed processing, great performance, effortless multitasking and a dramatic increase in your productivity. Get the most out of it with a new PC. Today’s desktops and notebooks offer greater performance, quality and reliability than ever before. These computers have 2X faster performance, less waiting, sleek designs and keep you productive, entertained and informed. New technology gives you the performance you need in the design you desire. Lets take a look on Next Generation processor.

NEW
Dual-Core processor

Core™2 Duo Processor

Quad-Core processor

IP

When you talk about the Internet and web hosting, IP Address is a term that gets unlimited mention. And then you hear about two specific types commonly involved in hosting, Shared and Static IP Address. While it doesn’t necessarily take an expert to figure out the difference between the two, a basic understanding of how the Internet works goes a long way in explaining things.

All computers participating in any form of Internet activity are uniquely identified by a set of numbers they are assigned. Each time you type in a domain name on your browser’s address bar, you are requesting information from a domain as a set of numbers. In the same way, that domain will return your requested information by using its own set of identifying numbers as well. In other words, when you talk of Internet communication, everything happens between these sets of numbers with which a source computer and a destination computer are uniquely identified with. This unique set of numbers assigned to each computer is called an IP address.

This basic information about IP addresses will now make it possible to differentiate between Shared IP and Static IP. A Shared IP is one that is used by more than one site on the Internet while a Static IP address is one that is used by a single site. If you type in a Static IP on your browser’s address bar, you will be directed to the site which owns that Static IP, but if you enter a Shared IP, you’ll get to a server but not to the domain you want because this server wouldn’t know which particular site you’re trying to connect to.

The question is, why would you secure a Static IP and why would you be fine with a Shared IP? Basically, there is only one reason why a Static IP would be necessary – to secure sensitive information. With a Static IP, this information enters and leaves your site in coded form to avoid interception. Obviously, this is the IP address that makes e-commerce possible as well communication between government agencies and other institutions that handle confidential data.

The unfortunate truth is, whether you’re using Shared or Static, hackers could still wreak havoc on your system just by detecting your IP address. The Internet itself was created to detect IP addresses because this is how communication within the network is possible. However, the technology will not limit your ability to protect yourself when surfing. And your best weapon against hackers is to hide your IP address. Hiding your IP will make it impossible for anyone to even know you’re even there. And when they don’t know you’re there, you can go from one website to another without leaving a trail that could be traced back to you.

To hide your IP could be as simple as getting a working IP changer software to make sure that you’re all protected when you just can’t leave a thing to chance.

open the doors

HOW. Because of this word entrepreneurs like you and me started on the exciting road of becoming business owners. For some it started with: How can I make my life better? or How can I better take care of my family? For many of us it was: How can I leave this dead end job and start anew? Sounds familiar? How is a powerful word, indeed.

But the power of HOW is not in the word itself, but in what comes after it. Each response to it opens new doors and takes you in a different direction. Without an honest answer to HOW a business cannot succeed. Without answering the most common How questions a business cannot take off and it can’t take off because there’s no business plan. Part of having a well developed business plan is to answer many “How to” questions. How do you bring customers? How do you turn your website visitors into buyers? How do I get a domain name? All questions that need an answer before you open your doors for business.

I want you to look at your business from top to bottom. Explore each answer to every one of your questions. How can I increase sales? Possible responses are: by increasing marketing efforts. How do you do that? By increasing my marketing budget or perhaps by starting an email campaign. Each response will probably create another How question but at the end of the exercise you will have a powerful picture of where you are and what you need to move your business forward. I have used this exercise successfully for my businesses and it works great when applied to your personal life as well.

During a discussion on this topic a person I mentor noted the simplicity of the concept and questioned why he had not thought of it before. He said he did think about most things but after the exercise he understood his business better. I don’t want to go into long explanations about business marketing or use this as a platform for fancy and confusing business terms. My goal is to make you aware of the smaller things that can sometimes make a difference between a successful business and one that struggles to make money.

I wish you luck and come back as I will explore other specific “How to” scenarios meant to guide you in the right direction.

Jose Rodriguez is a member of a private organization that teaches people how to start their own business. By becoming a member of this private society you’ll have access to the most cutting edge Tools, Training and Strategies to start your own online Empire!